The Senate Just Reached A Major Deal To Revive Unemployment Insurance

Senators have reached an agreement on a deal to revive expired
unemployment insurance benefits to approximately 1.3 million
jobless Americans, a Senate Democratic leadership aide told
Business Insider. The deal ends months of wrangling
among negotiators in the Senate. The Senate has failed twice this
year to pass an extension in unemployment insurance, falling one
Republican vote shy last month.

The aide told Business Insider the forthcoming bill would extend
the benefits, which expired in late December, for five months.
The benefits will be applied retroactively, meaning they would be
set to expire again in late May.

The forthcoming bill will be sponsored by 10 senators —
Democratic Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Jeff
Merkley of Oregon, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of
Ohio, and Dick Durbin of Illinois; and Republican Sens. Susan
Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,
Mark Kirk of Illinois, and Dean Heller of Nevada.

The bill is paid for through a combination of offsets,
including "pension smoothing," which allows employers to reduce
payments to employees' pensions. It also extends customs user
fees through 2024.

The emerging legislation also contains language aimed
to strengthen reemployment and eligibility assessment
(REA) and ReEmployment Services (RES) programs, which are
designed to help job seekers get back into the workforce. It also
would end unemployment insurance payments to anyone who made more
than $1 million of income the previous year.

It's unclear whether the Senate bill will have a chance to
pass the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner has said
any bill considered by his members will have to be paid for and
include a "job-creating" provision.